This five member band has created a unique sound that separates them from the masses of other bands out in the music industry. With strong lead vocals by Elissa Sapp along with a group of talented guys, Under Your Bed will have you cheering for good music once again. Check out this recent interview that the members of the group completed with our publication.
Band Members
Elissa Sapp: vocals and piano
Jim Marchione: lead electric guitar and vocals
Bryan Jennings: electric bass and vocals
Zach Brown: drums
Jon Rossi: rhythm guitar and vocals
Isaac: Hi Everyone. Welcome to your interview with Junior's Cave. Now that 2008 has officially ended, what are your reflections of the year 2008 for Under Your Bed?
Jim: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us Isaac.
Zach: Drums go BOOM!
Bryan: 2008 has been a real roller coaster for us. We finished our first record (for the third time) which we'll put in the +1 category. However, and I don't mean to digress here, I feel the hardest part about being in a band is all the things that almost happen which 2008 had in spades. There are a lot of opportunities you try to pursue and not all of them come to fruition; booking agents, touring, etc. Sometimes plans fall through, sometimes people fall through. All in all I'm looking foreword to 2009 hopefully a little wiser and a little smarter.
Isaac: How did everyone come together as a group? What drawn you to each other?
Bryan: It was all completely random. No ads with "drummer wanted" or anything like that. It was all people who knew people and it just seemed to work.
Jim: Definitely. It really came together one person at a time from the day I met Elissa. I was immediately struck by the power of her voice as an instrument and how honestly she emotes when she sings. When she and I decided to start a band the audition process was an ongoing thing. It was always "my friend knows a guy who would be just right to play "blank" for you guys. Then it would turn out to be the right fit or it wouldn't. The lineup didn't settle down until we were doing the last set of demos for the LP.
Zach: Personally, I was drawn in by Bryan's tight abs and Jimi's boyish good looks...and drums go BOOM!
Elissa: What I think is so funny about us is the variety in each member's taste. If you lined up all of our record collections you would be surprised at how little overlap there is. I think there are certain staples in every record collection, Nirvana, Foo fighters, Bowie, but everything else is up for grabs. That's what makes us so unique and fresh; you never know where a song's going to go sound-wise.
Jim: I've observed that all three musicians Elissa and I chose to continue playing and writing with share two common traits, a slightly warped sense of humor coupled with a boundless enthusiasm for music. I don't think we actively sought that out. We didn't really know what we were looking for… they kinda found us, and in that we've been very fortunate.
Isaac: Elaborate a little about whom were your biggest influences in the music industry and why?
Zach: Dave Grohl, because he make drums go BOOM good! But seriously, he's the most influential modern musician to me because he's a kickass drummer, guitar player, and songwriter.
Jon: Honestly there isn't any way that I can answer this without someone getting mad at me, but in my time playing guitar I absolutely took to Billy Joe Armstrong's playing style (vocalist and guitarist from the 'not-so-popular' band Green Day). I'm really into that hard driven guitar tone, making sure my hits emphasize certain phrases in our songs.
Jim: Mission accomplished, I'm mad at you Jon. Grrrrr.
Bryan: This has to be my favorite topic. So please forgive me if I ramble a bit. I think we can all agree that our biggest influences are those artists who came before us who did their own thing. Whether it was Bowie, Pink Floyd, Iggy Pop, or The Police, Foo Fighters, or Soundgarden the common thread is each of these artists completely ignored the contemporary and forged there own niche. I think we are currently in a similar place as we were in the late 80's where we have an over-saturation of bands who write in the same style and despite minute differences, sound identical. Not to mention the lackluster songwriting. And I think this is the thing that influences us the most....all the garbage on the radio.
Jim: In the broadest sense I'll agree with Bryan, I think as a group we're more influenced to take the chances we take by music we don't like than music we're really into. That's particularly true for Bryan and I - we talk a lot about what we don't want to do. I could fill a whole interview with music industry influences and what I've taken away from their music and business approach and probably only 10 people would care. In fact I wound up with this really long answer but deleted it. I'm going to restrain my response to one name, Quincy Jones. If you're talking about the music INDUSTRY and not just influential musicians, there's a guy who has done it and been it all. I think he's influenced everyone at least indirectly and he's carried his influences from the big band era, often subtly disguised, to younger generations of musicians through his work as an arranger and producer.
Elissa: I think what we all have in common as a band is our love of music, which is obvious and strange to say. But I think in this day there are so many other things that motivate musicians, I think being in a band these days is equivalent to being on a sports team in the 70's and 80's, all the cool kids are doing it. The market is so over-saturated with artists who don't have the passion behind the action. I know for a fact if we could see into a crystal ball where we never made it big, we would all still be playing and writing just as vigorously for the love of it. We really couldn't have it any other way.
Isaac: Let's talk about what you feel Under Your Bed will bring to the music industry?
Zach: We will strive to protect the rights of midgets in the entertainment industry... no longer will they be typecast as waiters and candymen - they can be basketball players and singers too!
Jim: What about that midget dressed as a cowboy in "Happy Gilmore?" Elissa isn't very tall, and I've been known to refer to her as The Midget. Now you're all part of an Under Your Bed inside joke.
Jon: We try to maintain a sophisticated play style that keeps the not-so-ordinary listener interested while not making things so complex that it makes someone with no musical experience question what's going on. We struggle to make sure we aren't just a band that everyday listeners zone out to during the work day.
Jim: riiiiiiiiight….
Bryan: What we're bringing is a mentality. I won't say we're perfectionists but we can't stand "good enough". It's embarrassing. I think the music industry has gotten lazy. Bad take? Fix it in pro-tools. Can't sing? We got auto tune. We even have guitars that tune themselves now. Just get it done fast, get it done cheap, and we'll sell a million copies 'cause it sounds just like the last record that sold a million copies. At some point every generation realizes it's being spoon-fed a lie.
Isaac: If you had an opportunity to work with one artist or group, who would it be and why?
Zach: Hmm....I can just imagine the variety of different answers from my bandmates. I'm not sure who exactly, but it would have to be someone who could really take our style into a weird direction, like Bjork or some shit… or Mike Patton or maybe Frank Black.
Jon: Foo Fighters by far... Dave Grohl.
Jim: Jon, nothing against Dave Grohl, but I can't imagine our working relationship would be friendly or even productive. I could probably drive him right out the back door of the studio in 30 minutes. I might be able get along with Mike Patton. I'm not sure how much it matters who you work with as long as everyone gets on the same page and gives 110%. That said, I would love to branch out a little and record some songs with T-Bone Burnett.
Isaac: How would you describe your music to others?
Jim: Modal noise-pop? I dunno. Anyone? Anyone?
Zach: This one's always tough...I usually tell people its a Latin Emocore album with a Christian/Faith twist, as told by a lab monkey coming to terms with estranged family members before his imminent space launch. But I suppose it would also be fair to say that we're a rock band that focuses on writing great songs that incorporate a variety of styles (that's the magazine interview version).
Bryan: Female-fronted, guitar-driven rock.
Jon: Our band doesn't play nicely with the other bands... and by that I don't mean that we don't get along with other people.
Jim: Well, to be fair, me and Bryan don't always get along with other people.
Jon: Its hard with today's industry to fit us in with other bands being that people are playing Metal or Country, not to mention today's "modern rock" bands all share the same vocalist -- 3 Doors Down, Breaking Benjamin, Pearl Jam, Nickelback -- I cant tell them apart anymore. I like to think of our music as refreshing. We replicate what bands used to reach for prior to the 80s. We're trying to stay away from the modern day tones, and bring back the old rickety sound of guitars falling apart at the seems.
Isaac: What type of feedback have you received from your self-released Self Titled CD?
Zach: The loud, piercing kind... you know, like when you play a club with a lousy sound guy.
Jim: Yeah, there's copious amounts of feedback on a number of the tracks. My ears receive that feedback every time I listen to those songs.
Zach: So far people have really loved it, and I think our production team is to thank for making it sound so great. I've played in several bands over the years, and they've all had their demos and home-recorded EPs, but Under Your Bed has accomplished a "real" album. We really put the time into preparing and arranging the songs well (except for a couple that just kinda wrote themselves), and our producer and engineer helped us realize our vision.
Jon: I've heard from many people they just leave the CD run on loop in their car or on their iPod's. Favorite tracks consist of American Idle, Inertia, Piss on my Parade.
Bryan: All the feedback has been positive. I think people dig the record 'cause they can tell we made the best record we could. I also think we have a wide range of tunes so there is bound to be a couple tracks for everyone. I think the appeal is in the songwriting.
Isaac: What can fans expect from your Self Titled CD? What is the inspiration behind the CD?
Jim: They should expect to hear songs… 13 of them to be precise. It's a very unlucky record I guess. I can't speak about the lyrics, but musically my inspiration is always to generate a mood, set the stage so to speak. Elissa?
Elissa: I'm generally inspired by day-to-day experiences and conversation, even if the story is elaborated and taken in another direction the core of the song is always drawn from emotions that are very real. I do my best to always write about what I know, keep in' it real I think it makes it easier for fans to relate.
Zach: Well the fans that we DO have can expect to finally get their hands on the damn thing. This is the second time we've recorded it, and we've been playing and refining the songs for years now. Some (and I really mean some) people having been waiting two years already!
Jon: We put everything on hold for about a year and a half to work on this CD and make sure that it's the best product we could produce. We are in the entertainment industry and realize how important it is to please our fans with something new and edgy, so we did something different and said "in with the old and out with the new!" Today's standards of rock and roll have really fallen in my opinion... leads have become too busy and rhythm is for the most part a giant mixing pot of mush. Our watchword was 'simplify!' I've come to the realization that because bands were limited to 4 tracks back in the day, they were forced to do more with less. With today's technology you can have as many tracks as your Hard drive can hold... just because you have more room doesn't mean you need to fill it.
Jim: It all ends up on 2 tracks in stereo when it reaches the listener, there's only so much bandwidth before all the sounds start masking eachother.
Isaac: What can fans expect from Under Your Bed in 2009?
Elissa: We're just getting back on the writing horse. All of us write in our own time but I think we're really excited to collaborate and spawn something fun and different-even for us. Since we now have one in the can I can't wait to dig in and push ourselves to see what we're capable of and raise the bar even higher.
Zach: Well, as Elissa said, we're working on some new material right now, and just getting out and playing more gigs in Philly and other parts of the region. We recently played a semi-acoustic gig and had to learn how to play our songs differently, which was really cool. So maybe we'll branch out and do a few more shows like that this year. Also, we want to focus on getting our album heard...so hopefully we'll pop up on local radio or an in indie flick or something.
Jim: Whatever we do I hope it comes as a surprise, so if I made an answer it would have to be a lie, just to throw folks off the scent.
Isaac: Time for some shout outs to your family, friends, and fans…
Jon: I would like to thank my parents Ken and Lonni Rossi for supporting me in all my endeavors and buying me that stupid piece of crap slammer guitar so that I could pick up at least one useful skill in my lifetime. TIM YOU'RE THE MAD MAN!!!!!!!!
Jim: All my love to my mom and dad, Mitch Levine Rock Machine and Dave LeSage who were there to give support and advice on day one… and of course a big thank you to my best friend Joe Bisirri and his partner Jon Low. Their skills behind the console, feel for music and sense of humor kept those repetitive days in the studio fun and productive. I should also thank Idris, Joe's girlfriend Deb and Tricia (the only decent roommate I've ever had) for all their toleration and support while we were writing and recording this album. Oh yeah, gotta thank Tim the Batshit Gorilla for coming to pretty much EVERY show in PA. Then there's Zach Melman of Spacecharge instruments who, apart from being my oldest friend, always keeps our equipment in top shape. Last but not least, no set of thank yous would be complete without the incomparable Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice at Peerless Mastering! Great job guys.
Elissa: Of course our Families, I'm pretty sure they would watch us pick our noses on stage and demand an encore, our friends especially from the nail crew, Cheeks is the best Landlord ever, John L. And Joe B. for all their hard work and giving us something to be proud of, and you, thanks Isaac for your time! This is awesome!
Isaac: Final words from Under Your Bed…
Zach: Garlic mayonnaise!
Jim: What about the mysterious 'pub sauce,' Zach?
Bryan: There's an old saying that "if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well." Don't sell yourself short and don't quit when things start to get hard. You just might surprise yourself.
